After Hours at the Dakota Jazz Club

By Katie Askew

Now that the clocks have sprung ahead and spring is on the horizon (hopefully), it’s time to take advantage of those extra-long dusk hours at the Dakota Jazz Club. Perhaps best known as a venue for such local legends as Prince and today's finest jazz musicians, the iconic club actually hosts a surprising variey of musicians, including local psychedelic-rock bands Buffalo Moon and Umami.

Buffalo Moon produced their first record, Wetsuit, in 2010, which “made everybody want to go to the beach and get drunk and fall in love,” according to the band. Their second album, Selva Surreal ("surreal jungle"), has a more sophisticated sound than their first, but is still full of highly danceable jams that make you want to get up and move. Their bilingual, bossa nova tunes are dervived from guitarist/harpist/lead vocalist Karen Freire's background (she was born in Ecuador). The other four members hail from the prairies of South Dakota.

Umami, who describes themselves as "crunkadelic, psychedelic, and weird, [with a] down-low ghetto feel; dance-y, but different....a little more R&B-grounded," is named after the Japanese term for "savory." Three of the four members met while working at Stub and Herbs near the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus, but the group really is the sum of two former Minneapolis locals, Guystorm and Military Special. The lead vocalist, Angelo Pennacchio, says he aims to surprise audiences with his extreme vocal sounds and solid tambourine skills. And, since they pride themselves on having little to no internet presence, you’ll have to see in person what that sounds like.